The Eternal Struggle needed for Intellectual Swaraj in the Shadows of Colonialism as a citizen

“The quintessence of Swaraj is to think for oneself. Intellectual slavery is the worst kind of slavery because it makes the victim collaborate in his own enslavement.” – K.C. Bhattacharya

Swaraj, meaning “to rule oneself,” pertains not only to political independence but also to the sovereignty of the mind. As citizens, students, parents, and educators, the need for intellectual autonomy in our daily lives is better than ever. K.C. Bhattacharya argues in his classic essay Swaraj in Ideas that we should free our minds from colonial captivity and reclaim intellectual sovereignty. So, even when India has got political freedom, the mental servitude of the foreign influence has not been wiped out, yet it shapes all our educational structures, cultural forms, and models of economy. The path of true Swaraj is at once national and deeply personal—impacting thought, learning, and teaching processes.

For us as citizens, intellectual Swaraj is about freeing ourselves from the fatalism of embracing things without a critique and exercising critical thought. Bhattacharya flags the danger of the uncritical assimilation of European models, which often lead to a disregard of indigenous knowledge and its distinct traditions. In modern governance and policy-making, this often translates into the preference for Western economic frameworks without regard to India's socio-cultural landscape. Consider, for instance, the unchecked embrace of neoliberal policies that has, at times, undermined the traditional community-based economic systems sustaining generations. At the core of this must be citizen representation and the vision of a governance model that could integrate modernization with indigenous wisdom rather than blind adoption of external paradigms. It should not be confused to rejecting the positive impacts of western rather in the words of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o “Intellectual decolonization is not about rejecting the West but about reclaiming the indigenous.”

Bhattacharya's vision is, more than anything else, urgent for the student. The Indian education system still largely bases its thinking on Western theories, relegating our indigenous philosophies to the margin. A curriculum that focuses on Western scholars at the cost of our own intellectual traditions cultivates a subtle and profound loss to self-esteem in students. Most students grow up believing that intelligence and sophistication lie in being able to converse in English, whereas their tongues and dialects pale in comparison. This linguistic bias is a modern form of mental colonization that stifles creativity and self-expression. True intellectual Swaraj for students means embracing a broader, more inclusive education—one that values Indian knowledge systems alongside global learning, fostering a genuine sense of pride in our heritage while remaining open to diverse perspectives. We need to realize that colonization is a mental phenomenon and we need to decolonize not only our minds but also the minds of the future generation because in the word of Frantz Fanon – “The colonized mind is not merely a victim; it is an instrument of its own servitude.”

For parents, the fight for intellectual autonomy has come to mean the values in the children. Most parents, consciously or unconsciously, give cultural subservience by prioritizing Western visions of success over indigenous values. This is well illustrated in career aspirations where traditional vocations are chased out by Westernized professional paths, not out of merit but because of societal conditioning. The message goes from dressing styles to movie patterns, further accentuating the view that anything Western is better by default. The Bhattacharyas' message to parents was to foster a culture where respect for one’s own culture finds its ground—thus children are raised to appreciate and respect their way of life in equal measure while appreciating worldwide influences.

Intellectual Swaraj calls the educators to duty. Teachers shape young minds, and if they themselves are conditioned by colonial-era biases, they unknowingly continue the cycle of mental subjugation. The tendency to prioritize Eurocentric texts over indigenous literature, to favor Western pedagogical methods without contextual adaptation, and to evaluate students through foreign frameworks of knowledge assessment all contribute to a system that alienates students from their own cultural roots. Bhattacharya’s vision compels educators to redefine the way knowledge is imparted, ensuring that indigenous perspectives are not just preserved but actively revived and integrated into the learning process. To quote K.C. Bhattacharya –“Political freedom is only the first step; true freedom lies in the emancipation of thought.” As we transition into the era of technology, new challenges have emerged which need our immediate attention.

The digital age has complicated the quest for intellectual autonomy. Most people—as citizens, students, parents, and educators—consume content through algorithms that maximize Western narratives at the cost of indigenous voices. The dominance of Western media, social discourse, and academic publishing has reinforced a global hierarchy of knowledge in which local voices grapple with legitimacy. Digital Swaraj, therefore, is a necessary extension of Bhattacharya’s vision, calling upon us to create and promote content that prioritizes indigenous narratives and ensures that our perspectives are not lost in the overwhelming tide of Western discourse.

Therefore, the very root of Bhattacharya’s contention is that true Swaraj is not so much external in its character, but internal and must be reached by an activist interaction with one's intellectual antecedents while being critically self-aware of external influences. And, it never involves the discrediting of external thought processes but its productive absorption within our indigenous structure; hence, such a Swaraj is continually underway—a scrutiny ensuring borrowed know-how is turned toward national benefit as well as to personal needs and not enslaved. We have to remember that George Orwell quoted– “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”

India’s journey towards intellectual Swaraj remains unfinished. While strides have been made in reclaiming cultural and historical narratives, the deep-seated influence of colonial mindsets continues to pervade our lives. The challenge before us is to find a balance—engaging with the world while preserving our intellectual independence. Bhattacharya’s philosophy is not an abstract theory; it is a lived necessity. As citizens, we must demand policies that reflect our unique socio-cultural needs. As students, we must reclaim our academic spaces. As parents, we must instill cultural pride in future generations. And as educators, we must liberate the classroom from the last vestiges of mental colonization. Only then will India become a real nation in the true sense of Swaraj.